Sell! Sell! Sell!

A recent conference in Singapore brought together

entrepreneurs and VCs from across the Asian region. There were product booths,

one-on-one sessions between entrepreneurs and VCs, and panel discussions. What

struck me the most was the total lack of sales culture. Everyone was in their

allotted booths or rooms and waited for people to walk in and ask questions

about their product.

Imagine the opportunity: about 1000 people from across Asia

present. Many of them, highly influential. And as CEO of a startup, there could

be myriad opportunities for selling, striking alliances, partnerships etc for

your company.

In the US, entrepreneurs salivate at the possibility of

participating in such events. Each and every opportunity (and several

non-opportunities) is converted into sales events. The CEO and other company

executives would be busy meeting people (often starting with a "Hi, I'm

John from startupcompany.com", figuring out how to reach that special VC or

lawyer or....). They would 'work their networks'. There, everyone from the CEO

(the chief salesman) downwards is in the business of selling the company's

capabilities, sealing deals, selling the company's products, services, etc. Bill

Gates typifies this.

Which brings us to the topic of this Gurukul? Namely, the

criticality of the sales function. Indians in general are hesitant to talk about

their themselves. We are hesitant to say "I created the business" or

"I designed the system" or "I took revenues from $200K to $2m in

2 years".

In a corporate setting, this shows up in laconic answers to

questions about capabilities and achievements. This shows up in nondescript

product literature. This shows up in plain-vanilla product demonstrations. This

shows up in the inability to create and close deals. While the prevailing logic

used to be: "If the product and company are good and reliable, customers

will come" or something to that effect. It sounds uncannily similar to the

earlier production-side argument: "Build it and they will come". It

was not considered 'nice' to be talking about yourself or your company. Others

had to do it. Unfortunately, given the competitive nature of the world we now

live in, there's no running away from the sales function. Else, 'others' will

start talking about 'other' companies, not yours!

So, what's all this got to do with a startup? A whole lot as

it turns out. And the chief salesman is the CEO.

CEOs have to sell the vision of the company to the other

founders or key management to get them to sign away a few years of their working

lives towards making this vision a reality. They have to sell the vision to

savvy investors and get them to believe in the possibilities the company has to

offer. They have to sell the company's vision to their employees. They have to

sell the company's capabilities (no more sales of visions and possibilities!),

its products, services and processes to prospective customers and partners. And

now imagine things go sour - as they usually will. The sales function gets into

overdrive: keeping employee motivation high, managing angry customers and

partners, managing upset investors in the boardroom. It is important to keep in

mind a few realities:

• Sales is NOT about smooth talking, wearing designer clothes
  
  and carrying a cell-phone. Sales is about understanding the product and service,
  
  understanding what the company stands for, and COMMUNICATING it clearly,
  
  forcefully, simply.
• Sales is about building relationships with various
  
  constituents. This implies getting to know other people and their motivations.
  
  This means leveraging relationships in a mutually beneficial manner.
• Sales is not the art of the hard sell. But it means being
  
  persuasive. It means being persistent and relentless. It means having a driving
  
  desire to make the other person acknowledge the superiority of your
  
  product/service by paying for it. It means having the ability to spot an
  
  inch-wide opening to sell a mile-wide product.
• It does NOT mean being dishonest.

In today's increasingly competitive world where time is of

essence and where the "elevator pitch" is the corporate door opener,

it is essential to be articulate, to have good presentation skills, to have good

inter-personal skills. These skills have to be practiced and learnt. After all,

if you are unable to communicate your capabilities, how can you expect the other

person to know of them? What is the incentive for the other person to spend time

to get to know your company, its products and services when there are any number

of competitors? After all, not everyone is a mind reader.

It is critical for the CEO to become the No. 1 sales person

of the company. Winston Churchill once said this about a fellow parliamentarian:

"He's a very modest man. With much to be modest about!" Well, next

time you are modest about yourself, your company, its products and services,

think of this saying.

(The author is Managing Director, JumpStartUp. He can be

contacted at sanjay@jumpstartup.net)